Thomas Pringle (Donegal South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to contribute to the debate on the supply of housing and the Government's homelessness policy in the State. There is no doubt, as stated by other speakers, that there is a crisis in the provision of housing and dealing with homelessness in the State. The two are intrinsically linked. Dealing with the housing policy and the housing crisis will feed into helping to resolve the issue of homelessness. While specific actions may be needed to complete dealing with homelessness they should all be dealt with.

There is no escaping the fact that there is no political will to deal with the housing issue. I do not believe in the way housing has been treated in recent years. The usual excuses that have been trotted out are that we have been in a very difficult financial situation, that we have been reliant on others to keep us going, and we blame Fianna Fáil for putting us in that situation. The Government talked about stimulating the economy and encouraging people to get back to work by having activity. Dealing with the housing issue would have been a way to do that and continuing on with house completions would have stimulated local employment and would have paid dividends in returns to the State. Clearly, the figures for social housing completions have declined from 6,600 in 2007 to 1,000 at the end of 2012 and have declined even further now as no new units are being built. Housing purchases decreased from 2,000 in 2007 to 56 at the end of September 2013 and local authority housing progression went from 7,700 in 2007 to zero in 2010. That shows the extent of the crisis because of the factors that have been outlined by other Deputies including the mortgage crisis, spiralling rents and people's inability to provide for themselves.

The number of people dependent on and seeking social housing has mushroomed and increased significantly. In Donegal, there are 2,600 people on the housing waiting list. It is estimated that with the number of people in receipt of rent allowance for more than 18 months and who are prioritised under the housing policy it brings the number up to approximately 4,300. That is a huge issue with which to deal. In Donegal, under a leasing programme, 78 houses have been approved and under the NAMA scheme 59 houses have been deemed acceptable for social housing, but yet none of those houses has been completed and none of the transfers has been completed. There is a huge crisis in Donegal.

We are aware there is a housing crisis in Dublin and the surrounding counties because of the improvement in the economy and the increased demand and rising rents. There is a crisis also in rural areas because of the decline in housing provision by local authorities which makes it very difficult for people to meet their accommodation needs. It appears to me that the main pitch of Government policy is to rely on the private sector through the rental accommodation scheme, through rent allowance and long-term leasing. That approach will not deal with the issues and the problems. In Donegal, three houses have been built in the past three years. The only reason we were able to get those houses built was that they had already been tendered and contractors appointed when the Government slashed the programme. We had to fight to get those three approvals to go to construction; one per year for 2012, 2013 and 2014, for 4,300 people in need of housing assistance. That is telling.

It is time the position improved and it is time to start rolling out a building programme which deals with people's housing needs. Such a programme could also help stimulate the local economy and local employment if the Government was creative and ensured that social clauses were included in the tendering contracts and ensured that the successful tenderers were compliant with all the labour law and the requirements for operating in the Twenty-six Counties which, unfortunately, Donegal County Council has neglected over the years. Local contracts in County Donegal have not been able to compete with contracts from the Six Counties because Donegal County Council simply ignored the requirements for operating in the South where contractors could not tender on a level playing field. If the Government was creative and did those things, we could start to deal with the housing crisis.

I mentioned the rent allowance although it is not yet the direct responsibility of the Minister of State; it may be her responsibility in the future and then she will have to deal with it. The responses of the Minister for Social Protection and the Department around the issue of rent allowance are disgraceful. I hope when it comes under the housing sections of the local authorities that it will be dealt with more properly. The idea that the rental subsidy cannot be increased because it would increase the rent is completely wrong.

About eight months ago the Department of Social Protection gave a presentation in the AV room on the new rent allowance limits that were being introduced, how it was operating, how it was a great system and would provide for everybody who needed it. That morning I went on daft.ie and searched for properties in Donegal for a single person under the cap that had been placed by the Department. In the entire county there were four flats available for rent under the cap for a single person. All the Department of Social Protection has done is develop a black market for landlords because tenants have no choice but to put in the rent under the cap otherwise they will be refused rent allowance straight away and they have to pay, in cash, the difference to the landlords. That is what has happened right across the country. Every Deputy in the country would say that. At the presentation, every Deputy told the Department of Social Protection this and its response was to accuse people seeking rent allowance of fraud. That is a bizarre situation. It shows the Department must be working in a vacuum if it thinks the rent allowance deals with the issue.

The rent allowance also shows the complete failure of the private sector to deal with any of the housing issues because landlords will capitalise on it and use rent allowance. Many landlords will refuse to take rent allowance from clients, which is another unfair outcome of the operation of the system. That happens particularly in the cities but also in rural areas where landlords will refuse to accept rent allowance clients as tenants. Some of this may be due to the fact that their properties are not known about or registered but it is a huge problem.

The Government will have to get a building programme up and running. I understand money is available from the European Investment Bank for capital programmes. Currently it is pitched only towards the voluntary housing sector and it is not capable of gearing up to avail of that money. That issue needs to be looked at and can only be dealt with public investment with a major housing programme being rolled out across the country to provide for people and which will have the knock on effects of being beneficial to the economy and also provide people with a basic right and a basic necessity, a roof over their head.

There is also a crisis within the local authority housing sections in terms of their being unable to afford to refurbish houses in order to re-let them. Approximately 40 houses in Donegal have been vacant for a substantial length of time, in some cases for many years, because to re-let them the local authority is required to bring them up to a set standard - it is right that this should be the case - but it cannot afford to do so. The cost per house in terms of refurbishment is approximately €50,000. This means the entire maintenance budget for the housing section within that local authority would be spent on refurbishing only one house, leaving the remaining houses undone. This issue also needs to be addressed. The local authorities must be provided with the resources to roll over their stock, thus housing people and ensuring some inroad is made in this area. It appears that even during the boom times the policy was to not provide housing for everybody who needed it in order to maintain demand within the system.

I am often struck as I come into Leinster House each morning by the number of people sleeping rough between here and the hotel across the road. During the five minute walk from here to the hotel one would pass at least five people sleeping rough, which in this society is a disgrace. Given the number of vacant NAMA properties throughout the city there is no reason this should continue.

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